Portable nursery chair



1963 B. c. STARKWEATHER 3,

PORTABLE NURSERY CHAIR Filed June 1, 1959 INVENTOR BRUCE C. STARKWEATHER BY p'l da y ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,105,665 PORTABLE NURSERY CHAIR Bruce Charles Starkweather, Madison, Wis., assignor to Weshar Stamping Corporation, West Bend, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Filed June 1, 1959, Ser. No. 817,407 1 Claim. (Cl. 248101) This invention relates to a sanitary nursery chair and more particularly to a sanitary nursery chair which can be folded and stored in a compact manner when it is not being used.

Sanitary nursery chairs which heretofore have utilized flexible liquid impervious material for receptacles have failed to provide a simple and eflective way for fastening a receptacle to a chair. This invention provides an improved method for attaching a flexible plastic receptacle to a nursery chair. It also provides an improved way for aflixing foldable legs to a chair seat.

It is an object of this invention to provide a childs sanitary nursery chair which can be thoroughly cleaned and can be easily maintained in sanitary condition.

It is another object of this invention to provide a sanitary and effective means for supporting a flexible bag receptacle member on a sanitary nursery chair.

It is another object of this invention to provide an improved means for alfixing foldable legs to a seat member of a nursery chair.

Other objects will become apparent from the drawings and from the following detailed description in which it is intended to illustrate the applicability of the invention without thereby limiting its scope to less than that of all equivalents which will be apparent to one skilled in the art. In the drawings like reference numerals refer to like parts and:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the article of this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional elevation of the article of this invention.

In FIGURES 1 and 2 the nursery chair of this invention is designated generally as 11 and is comprised of seat member 12 and leg members 13. Seat member 12 is configured essentially as a plane member and may be manufactured from stamped sheet metal or from molded synthetic resinous material. Channel members 22 are operably disposed on each of two opposite sides of seat member 12 and are configured for receiving thereintoleg members 13. Opening 15 is provided through seat member 12 with downward extending flange 16 being integral with seat member 12 and extending around opening 15. Ring member 17 is shown configured with downward extending wall 19 integral with outward extending flange 20 and being of a size which enables it to be placed within opening 15 of seat 12. Bag member 18 may be of any flexible liquid impervious material and can be operably supported by being passed through ring member 17 and being folded thereover so as to pass over the upper surface of ring 17 thence downwardly through opening 15 around the outside of ring member 17 and then be fixed in place by positioning ring member 17 securely within opening 15. A downward pull on bag 18 serves to force ring member 17 downward into very close proximity to bag 18 and thereby to frictionally restrain bag 18 from slipping from between ring member 17 and seat member 12 out of operable relation to seat member 12. The assembly can also be made, but is not preferred, by retroverting the upper extremity of bag 18 from outside ring member 17 through the center of ring member 17. Channel members 22 on seat 12 are shown comprised with right angular sides with upwardly extending protrusions 21 in the lowermost side member. Protrusions 21 may be die pressed in metal constructions of seat 12 or may be molded in resinous constructions of seat 12 and are merely deviations in the plane of the channel wall and are not struck therefrom or in any way separated therefrom so as to present crevices wherein refuse could remain and unsanitary conditions exist. Protrusions 21 and channel members 22 operably restrain leg members 13 in operable supporting relationship to seat member 12. Leg members 13 are pivotally interconnected by pivots 43 in a conventional manner and may be disconnected from seat member 12 of nursery article 11 by being brought together in a manner which draws them inwardly frictionally between seat member 12 and protrusions 21. The material from which seat member 12 and channel members 22 are manufactured must be sufficiently rigid to possess a suflicienitly high elastic modulus to enable leg members 13 to be operably restrained in channel members 22.

The provision of protrusions 21 in channel members 22 is an improvement in leg fastening means and possesses e utilitarian advantage of operably restraining movement of leg members 13 while being continuously integral with seat member 12. The construction presents a minimum opportunity for the occurrence of an unsanitary condition in channel members 22. The provision of this simple and eflective fastening arrangement is singularly utilitarian.

Leg members 13 may be manufactured from any conventionally configured material such as from tubes, channels, rods or any other suitable configurations. It is preferred to use tubular members because of the ease with which tubular legs can be cleaned and kept sanitary. Seat 12 can be manufactured from any metal or plastic material which is possessed of suflicient rigidity and strength to be used as shown. Aluminum or steel are suitable metal materials and molded polystyrene, urea formaldehyde condensation resin, phenol formaldehyde condensation resins and other synthetic resinous materials may be operably used. Similar materials may be used to provide ring member 17. Both seat member 12 and ring 17 are preferably to be made with corners which have a radius of curvature of at least 0.02 inch to enable thorough and expeditious cleaning of the article to be made.

A suitable bag member 18 may be comprised of polyethylene or of other flexible resinous material or of cellulosic, latex, or metal foil materials. The particular material that is used should be one which can be easily and inexpensively replaced to render bag 18 disposable.

Ring member 17 may be configured with lateral and depending flanges as shown or may have a modified construction such as a triangular cross section with the space formed by the interior angle between the flanges of the ring being filled to form a ring of solid triangular cross section. Ring 17 may have either a continuous or broken perimeter and may have either a continuous or intermittent cross section as described.

Channel members 22 may be right angularly configured as shown or may be circularly configured and with protrusions 21 being arranged therein as singular or multiple dimples or ridges.

Opening 15 may be of any regular or irregular configuration as may be desired and the nursery article may be finished with any suitable surface finish which is nontoxic.

While certain modifications and embodiments of the invention have been described, it is of course to be understood that there are a great number of variations which will suggest themselves to anyone familiar with the subject matter thereof and it is to be distinctly understood that this invention should not be limited except by such limitations as are clearly imposed in the appended claim.

I claim:

The method of supporting a flexible open top bag comprising the steps of passing the upper extremity of said bag through an opening in a supporting member, juxtaposing a restraining member having a lowermost portion of smaller size than said opening and an uppermost por- References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Oppenheim Nov. 6, 1928 La Gorce Aug. 6, 1957 Meldrum Apr. 1, i953 

